Lobbying

Connectyourself for Justice

If you take care of the planet,

you fight poverty

"Protect our common home, uniting the whole human family in the search for sustainable and integral development"

With the inspiring push of the Encyclical letter Laudato si', knowing, as Pope Francis says, that things can change, the entities of Connect yourself for Justice (Caritas, CONFER, Justice and Peace, Manos Unidas and REDES), have launched the campaign IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THE PLANET, YOU FIGHT POVERTY, which recommends contributing effectively to the decisions of the international community, as set out in the 2030 Agenda to take the bold and transforming measures urgently needed in order to change the current model of unjust, unsupportable and unsustainable development (LS, 194).

We are conscious, as the Pope reminds us, that in the current distributive model a minority believes in the right to consume a proportion of resources that would be impossible to apply indiscriminately, because the planet couldn't ever contain the resources for such consumption (LS, 50), while we live in a culture of discard [single-use], which excludes a large part of humanity and quickly throws things away, amongst them a third of the food produced in the planet. That is why we intend to change our lifestyles, and our models of production and consumption (LS, 5).

We are conscious that the rate of consumption, waste and alteration of the environment has exceeded the means of the planet, in such a way that our current completely unsustainable lifestyle can only end in catastrophe, as in fact it is already occurring periodically in various regions of the world. That is why we have to act now; it depends on a reversal of the system and on the responsibility that we have in the face of the most vulnerable, who are the ones that bear the worst consequences (LS, 161).

We are conscious that we have to overcome our attitudes of denial of the problem or of indifference or comfortable resignation or blind trust in technical solutions (LS, 14) for this reason we propose overcoming the technocratic paradigm (LS,111), by which technology and growth economic, will solve the problems.

We are conscious that incorporating the perspective of Human Rights is essential, especially for those who are most vulnerable (LS, 144), in the measures we take to transform our development model, for this reason we, therefore, strive to put Human Rights at the centre of all our actions through the testimonies and claims of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM).

We are conscious that everything is connected. There are not two separate crises, one environmental and one social, but a single and complex socio-environmental crisis. The solution requires an integrated approach to combat poverty, to restore dignity to those who are excluded and simultaneously take care of nature (LS, 139), so we must contribute to political decisions aimed at the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and their objectives that are of an integrated and indivisible nature, of world-wide significance and universally applicable.

To carry out these proposals, the campaign

IF YOU TAKE CARE THE PLANET,YOU FIGHT POVERTY is:

1. Undertaking a major awareness-raising effort throughout the whole country, to make our citizens aware - with special attention paid to schools - of the need to change our consumption patterns, making the relationship between our acts and the pernicious effects on our vulnerable sisters and brothers around the world and on the planet clear. Through the website www.enlazateporlajusticia.org and your social networks you will find educational materials based on the green decalogue and practical proposals such as the Eco-parish Guide, amongst others.

2. In coordination with other entities that hope to contribute to the achievement of a changed development model through the attainment of the SDG, the campaign is carrying out a strategy of political incidence through three central concepts:

a. Spain's fulfillment of its commitment to the SDG; we will specifically insist on encouraging participation, both in the territories, as well as in the civil society, in the process of an implementation process and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda.

b. The necessary change of our production and consumption models, defending the Human Rights perspective as a fundamental element in the economic activity of our companies, in partnership with REPAM, whose problems and proposals we will make our own.

c. The necessary change of our lifestyles, defending Spain's elaboration and implementation of legislative actions and citizens' awareness-raising, in order toreduce by half the per capita food waste, as required by Goal 3 of the 12th SDG.

Along with Pope Francis we recognize the valour, urgency and beauty of the challenge we are presented with (LS, 15) and we are convinced that we need to reinforce personal and collective sentiment in order to "be at home" (LS, 151).

For that reason, to carry out this campaign as people and as organizations we have to make an "ecological transformation". Leave ourselves in the move towards others (increasing our solidarity), breaking our isolated consciousness and the self-concern, maintaining a self-transcending attitude, as an essential condition needed to recognize other creatures in their own value, to set limits and to take care of others and the planet (LS, 208).